


Twelve Dances

by Is0lde



Category: Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Dancing, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-24 04:36:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6141700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Is0lde/pseuds/Is0lde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You dance how you love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twelve Dances

**Navani and Dalinar**

When Navani accepted Dalinar’s awkward request for a dance she had already decided she would choose Gavilar. It was the more expedient match politically and she needed every advantage she could lay her hands on. Yet she would miss this; miss the hesitant way his palm pressed flat to hers as they circle one another on the floor with the other brightladies and lords in a storm of whirling skirts. She would miss the look of intense focus on his face as he remembered foot patterns far more delicate than those of his shardstances and the hesitant, imploring glances he sent her. This was the Dalinar she would cherish in her heart long after she let him go. It was almost enough to make her regret.

 

**Dalinar and _shshshsh_**

Sometimes he dreamt of dancing. His partner was awkward, not moving quite in tune with the slower regal grace of an Alethi dance. It was like she wanted to twist out of his reach and pull him along to unfamiliar beats and rhythms.

She always did, the memory of her slipping through his mind’s fingers like sand when the morning came.

 

**Shallan and Adolin**

The Alethi Wedding Dance was nothing like its Veden equivalent and Shallan had thought it prudish at first. It had seemed so sterile and unromantic as they ploddingly worked through its complicated choreography, committing it to memory. The Veden dance was passionate and energetic and as they had practiced she longed to grab Adolin and pull him close.

Yet now, as they whirled and spun around one another like two stars, constantly drawing near and almost touching, she understood its beauty and grace. She could feel all the eyes on them as they moved in perfect mirrored synchronicity yet the only gaze that mattered was his matching hers.

 

**Renarin and Kaladin**

This was not the first time Renarin had danced with another man. Adolin had painstakingly taken the time to teach him to dance, helping him perfect the patterns of footwork required. He never quite achieved his brother’s effortless grace and he rarely danced anyways but when there was no escape he was more than passingly good.

Dancing with Kaladin was nothing like that. Kaladin’s request had been hesitant but determined and it made Renarin’s heart swell when his captain took his hand and pulled him away from his seat near the dinner fire. The dance was unlike those in the ballrooms he had committed to memory. This was frenzied energy, skipping and twirling around the fire with jovial passion. Neither of them were very good but it was worth a few stubbed toes to hear Kaladin’s breathless laughter echo with his own.

 

**Shallan and Renarin**

When he asked her to dance she was almost taken aback. Their relationship, if it could even be called such a thing, had been awkward since she had said those terrible things to him back on the Shattered Plains. Despite the stress she was under Shallan knew that her conduct had no excuse. Yet here he was despite all of that, asking her to dance. When she accepted his earnest and determined expression did not change but the weariness of his eyes lessened and his shoulders relaxed. Shallan smiled at him and offered her hand.

Perhaps they could start over the right way this time.

 

**Jakamav and Adolin**

Jakamav once thought fighting was like dancing. How could he not when he had watched Adolin in the duelling ring and sparred with him in the training grounds? After so many years it almost felt like a dance they shared together, each parry, block, dodge and thrust so practiced and fluid. It became a dance, of a sort.

Then war came and the illusion was all but shattered. Fighting was not like dancing. Anyone who used dancing as a comparison for fighting had clearly never seen battle. It was brutal, primal and whatever grace it possessed was not that of beauty but of violence. The reality of it all tasted bitter.

He looked at the King’s Blade, seeing his face reflected in the polished surface.

One last dance. One last fight.

 

**Sigzil and Kaladin**

Sigzil was no stranger to being stuck to the sides of a chasm wall when Kaladin had enough of tests. It was par the course when his captain was simply fed up with the whole “ordeal”, despite how counter productive it was. Dancing on the side of the wall together, the movements over exaggerated and somehow conveying sarcasm, was a new one though. Kaladin’s  smirk of triumph however was not nearly as sardonic as it usually was.

Sigzil would figure it out later and simply enjoy it for now.

 

**Jasnah and Shallan**

If anyone saw they would say the outburst of emotion was uncharacteristic of Jasnah Kholin. Jasnah herself would be inclined to agree had she not been wrapped up in the moment and the emotion. How long had it been since she had last seen Shallan’s flickering flame of life in the cognitive realm? Too long.

So she held Shallan tight in an embrace, her heart squeezing itself up into a knot. When Shallan began to sway, tugging Jasnah about in circles, she allowed her to for Shallan’s joyous laughter and spontaneous dancing was far better than tears. They were alive and they were together again… Jasnah could allow uncharacteristic displays of emotion and dance for such an occasion.

 

**Renarin and Adolin**

Adolin’s laughter was always infectious and Renarin could not help but chuckle in tune as Adolin rose from the curtsey and stepped forward. It would be the first time they went through the whole dance together without Adolin murmuring the cues and steps softly under his breath. The next time he performed this dance it would be with someone shorter than him with a daintier, uncalloused hand pressed against his own.

The thought of the feasts and balls where he would be expected to dance with others made him tense and uncomfortable. Pushing down the unpleasant thoughts to the corner of his mind Renarin focused instead on the present comfort and familiarity of Adolin, who smiled at him without judgement and with unconditional love as they stepped forward to begin the dance.

 

**Moash and Kaladin**

It got to a point where they could move through the katas together in perfect synchronicity. Moash felt a certain closeness to Kaladin in those moments as they moved through the chasms together with twin weapons in perfect harmony. It spoke to a familiarity he had not felt in a long time, trapped in the husk of helplessness and anger that was a bridgeman. Kaladin freed him of that–of the helplessness if not the deep seeded anger.

The katas were a dance; the dance of freedom and of camaraderie.  

 

**Kaladin and Shallan**

Kaladin tried to keep his murderous thoughts to a minimum as Shallan found her place in line opposite him. She grinned at him, harmlessly teasing and threw a wink that made him sigh with mock annoyance and true frustration. Why he allowed her to drag him out here onto the dance floor he did not know. Something kept him from turning tail and running back to the comfortable sidelines.

The dance was not like those he grew up watching during festivals. This was about elegance; perfectly Alethi. Shallan and Kaladin moved with the grace of youth and life, conveying passion and exuberance through their movements, making it up as they went and creating something beautiful. Despite his better judgement he had become transfixed by her smile and found himself smiling at her in turn with sore cheeks.

 

**Adolin and Kaladin**

Later, when he would have time to reflect, Adolin would liken flying to dancing. In the heat of the moment it had been a matter of life and death as they burst through the clouds and into the void of a star-filled sky with hands clasped tight and skin wet with rain. Syl whirled around them in a ribbon of light as they swirled and tumbled higher. For one weightless moment the adrenaline and fear seemed to slip away as they crested, Kaladin arcing over him in an effortless twist. He would never admit how the sight of Kaladin with his fierce gaze and the confident control had stolen his breath.

He would chalk it up to his stomach dropping out from under him as gravity suddenly righted itself and dragged them both back down into the Everstorm.


End file.
